Looking to ensure greater premium stability
Employers can have their say when it comes to employment insurance (EI) premium rate-setting as the federal government is holding online consultations.
The consultations will focus on how the mechanism can be further improved to ensure more stable and predictable rates while:
•ensuring the EI program breaks even over time
•avoiding large cumulative surpluses or deficits
•maintaining a transparent rate-setting process.
“Canadians want to be certain that EI premiums are only used to pay for the EI program, which we have already accomplished with the creation of the Canada Employment Insurance Financing Board,” said parliamentary secretary Kelly Leitch. “Like the government, they also want the program to break even over time, with no large surpluses or deficits.”
The consultations are aiming to ensure greater premium stability, according to parliamentary secretary Shelly Glover.
“This is in keeping with the spirit of the next phase of Canada’s Economic Action Plan and its measures to encourage business investment and growth, including tax reductions, cuts to red tape and a new one-time EI hiring credit for small business.”
Individuals interested in participating in the consultations online can do so at: http://www.fin.gc.ca/activty/consult/eiprs-etcac-eng.asp.
In addition, a number of roundtable discussions between the parliamentary secretaries and invited key stakeholders and experts will take place in the coming months.
The government committed to consulting on the EI rate-setting mechanism with announcement in September 2010 that it was limiting the potential increase in EI premiums to five cents per $100 of insurable earnings for 2011 and 10 cents for subsequent years.
